Create a Transportation Plan

Painless ways we can drastically reduce car emissions and foreign-oil dependency.

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• Going Green
• Better America

Moving With Less

In this country, driving a car is the single greatest contribution we each make to pollution, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It's ironic, then, that there are more vehicles registered in the United States than there are licensed drivers.

We Americans are never going to stop driving. Not only is it essential to our way of life, but we truly do love our vehicles and being out on the open road. Without question, though, we can drastically reduce car emissions and foreign-oil dependency.

Think about your household. How many vehicles do you really need? Does each adult in the household need a car? More to the point, does each teenager? Do you own a car that you almost never drive? Creating a household transportation plan reduces emissions and your contribution to the country's dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Here are some ideas to keep you moving with less.

• Choose your cars based on your household's total driving needs rather than on each driver's personal preferences. For example, a family might share one or two small cars for going back and forth to work, school, or the store and have one larger vehicle for family trips or carrying large loads.
  
  
• Check out the car-sharing services in your town. These services give you access to a car when you need it, but when you don't, someone else can use that car.With a "lending library" of cars parked throughout the area, sharing a vehicle doesn't have to be any less convenient than owning one. Check out CarSharing.net to find out what's available in your area -- whether rural or urban. Or try carpooling. You'll get home even faster when you're cruising in the HOV lane.

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During the hectic time after our son was born, my husband and I went weeks without being romantic, and it was taking its toll. As he helped me fold the laundry one day, I pointed to a pile of socks. "Those haven't been mated," I said. "I know the feeling," my husband muttered under his breath.

-- Robbin Cederblom

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